Dec 16, 2009

A Family Supper | Character Analysis

The narrator describes his father as “a formidable-looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows” who once “struck [him] several times around the head for chattering like an old woman.” Prizing manly behavior in the form of stoic reserve, he speaks in short, choppy sentences, such as when he describes Watanabe as “a fine man. A man of principle,” a statement that also reveals the traditional values with which he struggles as he faces his future alone. He wants to reconcile with his son, acknowledging “he could have been a better father”...